Problems Resolved? I Dont Think So

I have just logged on after a frustrating series of attempts. I actually believed the Blog "line" that the problems were resolved yet, once again, I have come on line in the middle of a mountain. I paid 75 US dollars last month for Linden taxes for land that I own and I am really getting VERY angry about the number of occasions when SL collapses, self-destructs, de-contstructs and generally &5$#4@$ up.
Now, I may be a little p***d off here (and I may be spitting in the wind) BUT please please get this system working. And please, no smarmy comments saying "They are doing their best" or "I'm all right Jack - it must just be you". I dont care what makes this work - if I buy a useless car I dotn expect to have the reasons why it is useless explained to me - I expect it to get fixed.
I had an important meeting arranged this evening on SL. I have spent a fortune on this site yet it seems to be in the stone age when it comes to actually providing oprreative services to its clients.
Am I the only one here who is feeling frustrated?
Is there something we can do as PAYING clients?
Personally, I think as individuals we stand as much chance of being listened to as ... well words fail me.
Please, advice or comments - particularly from Canadian, European and UK members who seem to be disregarded on a regular basis.
Jig. C.

I'm sorry, but in Linden Jeopardy, you have to phrase all of your angst in the form of a question.

Regarding LL's abuse of the word "resolved"...

In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word.. I don't think it means what you think it means..".

Meanwhile, the Gridmonkey's response to the wake-up call about more database issues with the asshat server: "I'm telling you, it is totally, completely INCONCEIVABLE!"

..with apologies to Mandy Patinkin and Wallace Shawn, as well as Rob Reiner and William Goldman.

SL is divided into three types of people.

Those who sign up, look and leave.

People who figure things can only get better - then after 6 months and a lot of expenditure realise what tossers LL are and dig in awaiting the competition, meanwhile amusing themselves prodding LL.

Those who become infected with Baccilus Fanboyus Linednsuss and spend their SL creeping (back) up the arse of the nearest Linden - preferably Phil, but any will do in an emergency.

Which sort are YOU going to be?

When you load up SL, before you press connect, go to preferences, 1st tab.
Are you set to home location, last location or do you type in a specific region?

'Tis a post of great incisiveness, truth, and humor.

Now look .. if I'm going to be diagnosed with a disease I want it spelt right .. even if I can't read the doctor's handwriting, ok?!?

Oh and Talarus ... was there a question?

Yesterday I was having terrible trouble getting off a sim that was so far north it looked to be off the map by a long way. Couldn't TP anywhere, and relogging didn't help. A friend advised me to change prefs to log on at home instead of previous location, and I escaped that way.

i just signed up a few days ago....

and since then, i've locked up, and the server i was on was going down, several times. i lost some inventory items, some organizing of things i had done, my profile... many things i had thought were saved -- weren't.

so what i want to know is... is this normal?? or did i just happen to sign up at a particularly bad time? (i am not a paying customer, yet, and if this sort of thing happens often... i might decide not to become one!)

Best way to answer this is Yes and No. In the past when this happened they actually got RESOLVED....but now since there are SOOOO many more people with SOOOOO many more objects and scripts LL can't keep up with itself. I see the problems...but I'm optimistic in hoping that they can catch up and eventually get ahead. I don't see why they wouldn't be able to do it...I just think it's gonna take some time. This huge influx really only started towards the beginning of November...and as anyone who buys electronics or a car knows...if you're gonna have problems they are usually inside the first 90 days or so....February is coming....hopefully that means the catch up time is coming.

No, that was just this Resident's "Answer".

Don't forget the 4th type: ones who have to resort to name calling when others haven't turned as bitter as they are.

Honestly? Is this normal? No - about two years back, when we ONLY admited paying members and thus online concurrency was about 2,500 at most, it was pretty damn nice.

Did you sign up at a bad time? Yes - two years ago you might have really liked it.

It would be more accurate to say the symtoms of the problem have been resolved.

The problem is an infrastructure that is inadequate for the load being placed on it. Once the load reduces to a tolerable level the primary symtoms go away. However the real problem still remains and has not been resolved, the infrastructure of SL is inadequate for the current user load and LL has not addressed this problem. With LL's corporate philosophy of employees only working on what they like to do, it is far easier for them to "fix" the immediate symtoms and then go back to what they like to do rather than doing the hard work of actually fixing the core problem.

I take it you have inside information on what projects every developer Linden is working on? Please, do share.

It may be a shock to you, but not every developer at LL is working on the same project. There are different teams working on different issues, each perfectly valid. The same group who focuses on the interface doesn't necessarily ever focus on grid stability. The group working on Mono doesn't necessarily work on asset issues. The group that sets up new servers doesn't necessarily review opensource code. From every indication LL has given, this is perfectly normal and acceptible in virtual every software development workplace.

Granted, the infastructure *is* inadequate. Nobody can reasonably expect an overnight miracle cure. But for you to assert that LL has not addressed the problem and that developers are fiddling while Rome is burning is stretching it.

Cory and others have noted several times in Town Halls and on the blog that there are several changes being developed to make the infastructure better - sim capping, Mono, etc.

I signed up back in September, and even though there are issues now i think it has gotten about 3% better. Now you get some warning that a user has messed themselves in the pool before getting tossed out on your arse so they can cleanup the mess.

Although there are a different set of issues than back then, the average is every 3 days something turns to crap. they fix it and break other things. The problems with SL will never be resolved from a consumers standpoint and thus, we are all in the same mess. I personally have my buisness hosted on a private sim as i though that would be better than mainland. For the longest time teleports to private sims would only work if you teleported to mainland and it took 2 weeks (maybe more) to resolve that.

My babbleing above was just to show you the cycle of SL for as long as i can remember. i have come to the assumption that SL is held together with rubberbands and chewing gum The "Central Hardware Failure" (if you were around for that) fully confirmed my suspicion.

I must say i love the business model - Raise the prices and keep the service crap. Only fix things that cause a revolt amongst the inmates. Bury your head in the sand when usability is 25%, blame it on the grid monkey and tell the inmates to deal with it.

Welcome to SL!

Thank you.

Many residents have a very unrealistic expectation for how easily or how quickly a system of this complexity can be changed, much less fixed at a fundamental level. Whether or not LL can find a way to adequately scale for the rapidly growing population of SL remains to be seen, but it's not a solution that can appear in a few weeks or even a few months. So there's going to be ongoing growing pains for some time to come, especially for the increasing number of residents with computers that do not run SL especially well.

Nonetheless, I'm heartened by several recent developments: open source, MONO, and the First Look client currently in beta testing. The benefits of these improvements aren't going to be felt immediately, but they do prove that LL is working hard to solve their problems.

Did you honestly expect island and tier fees to remain stagnant forever? Nobody forced you to commit to that much monthly expense, and nobody is telling you that you can't sell that island whenever you wish.

Obviously, you have some hope left or you would've cashed out long ago.

Did you not factor in the possibility that problems wouldn't magically go away? There were certainly a fair share of problems in September when you signed up. You plunking down money every month doesn't make your issues suddenly more important than everybody else's.

Whining (yes, I'll use the word) doesn't do anybody any good. Lindens are already perfectly aware of the growing discontent and are working on it.

(And this is directed to people in general, not just Billie)

Creating a sparkly new thread on this forum just to whine (ooh, twice in one post!), when there are plenty of other duplicate threads, is even worse. All it does is serve to make you look like an attention whore. If you aren't contributing anything new, don't waste everyone else's time with your sob story. You aren't being constructive. By complaining loudly and threatening legal action or demanding refunds and other extreme views only makes you look like a dolt.

ok
# 1 i wasnt whining, just stating my opinon on the latest direction i beleive LL to be heading.
# 2 - there was sarcasm in there - hence the term "inmates" and not residents
# 3 - I have accepted that i DONT want to pay 3k for another sim and therefore will be sticking with the one i am on
#4 - I know there were problems, was makign a genrealized statement about then and now. Call it self reflection.

#5 - personal attack was uncalled for as i was voicing my opinion.